I’ve researched tax information in various countries to offer you the following links to help you to prepare your records so your accountant can prepare your annual accounts in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
You can use this information to set up good records systems and processes well before the end of your financial year. In fact the earlier the better. If you set up these systems when you first start your business you will be well organised from Day 1.
However in reality the last thing most entrepreneurs and new business owners think about is keeping business records. After a few years though you will realise that you can manage your business better if you have good processes for keeping your financial records, with or without a small business accounting system.
Even then you might not get around to doing anything about it and will still muddle along till the end of the year when you hand all your bits and pieces of information over to your accountant.
From Inland Revenue New Zealand
IR suggests it’s worth setting up an easy-to-use filing system that allows you to quickly and efficiently find the information you need. There is a two page Fact Sheet on record keeping that you can download
From Australian Tax Office
The ATO recommends using Business Clean Up day (part of the Clean Up Australia campaign) to review and tidy up your business tax records?
Although BCU Day on 24 February has passed, you can still clean up your tax records before the end-of-year handover to your accountant.
ATO also has advice for keeping your tax records including what to keep and how long to keep them.
From Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in UK
The Office of Tax Simplification in HMRC has published the results of a review in 2012 that aimed to simplify tax processes for the smallest of businesses (those with less than £30,000 pa). Chapter 5 of the report “Small business tax review: Final report Simpler income tax for the smallest businesses” has the detail.
There is information on what records to keep if you’re self-employed. A limited company has different record keeping responsibilities.
From the Canada Revenue Agency
The CRA has a series of videos about keeping financial records including why records should be kept and the benefits of keeping accurate records.
If you own or manage a small business or if you are a sole trader or self-employed, you need to be aware of your legal responsibilities about tax in your country. Regardless of where your business is located, there is helpful information from all these links – in written form that you can download or view on screen or in video format.
If you need more help you can contact me for a free discussion.
So there is really no excuse for not keeping good records.